Wednesday, September 17, 2008

There's Losing And There's LOSING!!!!!

Cubs 7-Brewers 6:

I was watching the Cubs and the Brewers on and off for much of the afternoon and as the Brewers built a 6-2 lead, I thought to myself in a slightly maudlin fashion, I hope the Cubs and Braves play as poorly and as generously against the Mets over the next week as they have against the Brewers and Phillies. After Brewers closer Salomon Torres recorded the second out of the bottom of the ninth inning by inducing Derrek Lee to fly out to right fielder Corey Hart, I changed the channel to the YES Network to watch Mike Francesa of Mike'd Up/Francesa on the FAN (formerly Mike and the Mad Dog) interviewing Yankees manager Joe Girardi; Francesa planned to ask Girardi about the rumblings in Yankeeland that several veteran players were unhappy with Girardi's leadership. I momentarily flipped back to channel 433 to see if the game was over and there was the MLB Extra Innings insignia with the words "Good Night" underneath. Figuring the game was over and the Brewers had won, I turned back to YES and I half-attentively watched the TV simulcast as I listened to the interview and glanced at the screen in time to see the score-crawl run across the bottom and saw Brewers 6-Cubs 6 (Bot. 9). Puzzled, I quickly turned the channel back to 433 and realized that the game was actually on 432. Flipping back there, I saw Geovany Soto receiving enthusiastic congratulations in the dugout after his game-tying three-run homer. Shaking my head in disbelief, I watched the rest of the game. Long story short, after both teams squandered golden opportunities to score (especially the Brewers who had runners on second and third with no one out against Cubs closer Kerry Wood in the top of the twelfth, only to see Wood wriggle out of the jam with two ground balls and a strikeout), the Cubs won the game in the bottom of the twelfth on a game-winning single by Lee. This wasn't just a loss for the Brewers; this was a loss that was a signal for the team to just pack it in and try again next year. The most unbelievable thing about this isn't the comeback; nor is it that Torres managed to blow a four-run lead with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the ninth inning. The most unbelievable thing is that if the Brewers were trying to blow a game in this fashion, they couldn't do it. If Torres took the ball and started lofting it underhanded in slow-pitch softball style, the odds are that the Cubs hitters would either line the lollipop tosses right at someone or pop it up. To blow a game this way by giving up four straight hits, the last of which landing in the left-field bleachers is almost unfathomable. And for this reason, the Brewers are just about done with little or no hope to recover from their tailspin ruining what had promised to be a historic season for a long suffering franchise. They have a new manager in Dale Sveum, but are yielding the same results and this game is prime reason to give the team last rites because they're done.

At least Curt Schilling's earning his $8 million for 2008 with his mouth:

As tiresome as he is, Curt Schilling is still making headlines with his pompous rants. Now he's going off on Manny Ramirez and Manny's power play to get himself out of Boston----ESPN Story. Schilling has a right to his opinion, but as he rips Manny and anoints himself as defender for the Red Sox clubhouse, one has to wonder whether Manny's presence or Schilling's presence served as a greater distraction on the whole over the years that the two played in Boston. My guess is that despite Manny's tantrums and bizarre behaviors, teammates probably tired more of Schilling's flapping mouth than anything Manny ever did. And for Schilling, protector of all that is holy and hard core republican only when it suits him, to go on a radio show and engage in this type of rant ably assisted by two players----Brian Daubach and Lou Merloni----who were replacement players during the strike of 1995, epitomizes Schilling's self-important and oblivious hypocrisy more than anything else he's said or done (at least in the last several days...that we know of, anyway).